Canadian Orebodies Inc TSXV:CO announced an initial resource estimate for its Haig Inlet Iron Ore Project on the Belcher Islands, Nunavut. The resource total shows 230 million tonnes grading 35.17% iron indicated and 289 million tonnes grading 35.47% inferred.

The resource total includes estimates for the Haig North and Haig South areas of the deposit. Haig North shows 230 million tonnes grading 35.17% iron indicated and 155 million tonnes grading 35.55% iron inferred. Haig South shows 134 million tonnes grading 35.37% iron inferred.

President/CEO Gordon McKinnon tells ResourceClips.com, “Even with our initial resource, we could see a potential 20-year mine life. Of course, there’s still room to add tonnage to this resource. Over the three months of last summer, we drilled over 9,000 metres that led to this resource. We’re focusing on that high-grade hematite that had an excellent grade just above 35% across the entire ore body, and it’s a very flat-lying, continuous and homogeneous deposit that would be very easy to mine. But we still have a lot of work to do on the project’s metallurgy.

We think this will show that the Belcher Islands are a new Canadian iron-ore district—Gordon McKinnon

“Over the next year, we’ll be spending considerable time on the metallurgy,” he adds. “We’ll also be drilling again this summer. We’ll be looking at upping the tonnage on Haig South. Last summer, we put down only one drill hole there, so only a small portion of this resource came from Haig South. We’re going to firm that up next summer. We’ll be looking at the northern section of our claims contiguous to the Haig Deposit, which are even closer to the water. We’ll also be looking at the 30 kilometres of claims that we staked to the west, to potentially add more tonnage.

“The drill season lasts about three months, from the end of June to early October,” McKinnon reports.

The Belcher Islands lie in southeast Hudson Bay.

“The community of Sanikiluaq’s 22 kilometres from the deposit. They get six scheduled flights a week coming in, three out of Winnipeg, three out of Montreal. You can ATV from the runway right out to the deposit. But in terms of developing this, there’s still a lot of work to be done. Power issues and port facilities would have to be considered in a PEA down the road.

“We have to get a good handle on the metallurgy first. Once we’ve done that, we can roll into a PEA this year,” he says.

“We haven’t had any offtake inquiries yet. This resource will establish the company, and we’ll be on people’s radar. We’ll be marketing as well, and I think we’ll start to get inquiries down the road. We just picked up this project last year, and we’re not covered by any of the analysts yet. But now that we have our initial resource, I believe that’s going to change.

“We have a lot to offer,” McKinnon concludes. “The Haig Deposit alone is just the tip of the iceberg on the Belchers. We think this will show that the Belcher Islands are a new Canadian iron-ore district. We’re going to be targeting several other areas on the Belchers next summer. Throughout our claims we think there’s tremendous potential that could lead to additional iron-ore discoveries that could increase our resource outside of the Haig resource. One of the biggest advantages we have over players in the Labrador Trough is direct ocean shipping. We won’t have to build a railroad. The ore can go right on the ship and on to international markets.

“As we go forward with our investigations into the metallurgy and our drilling season, there’ll be lots more news to come.”